There's a lot to learn from what politicians and journalists can and can't tell us, their lowly constituents and readers. We read between the lines of the news coverage of the SNC-Lavalin scandal with BuzzFeed News' Paul McLeod. Then, Macleans columnist Anne Kingston helps translate politicians' passive-aggressive, condescending, or coded messages, passed to us through resignation letters, speeches, and even Twitter likes.

How did the Canadian press cover the biggest scandal yet to hit the Trudeau government? Will the SNC-Lavalin affair blow over? With this level of potential corruption, will anyone care or remember at election time?

In English media, there are whole organizations and departments devoted to debunking fake news. But in Quebec, a lot of the work falls to one guy: Jeff Yates. He talks to guest host Brigitte Noël about the unique challenges of combatting fake news in French and why he thinks it's time to destigmatize sharing bogus stories.

Is Netflix threatening Canadian culture through neo-imperialism? Never mind the copyright infringement, was the Conservative Party's Heritage Minute any good? And did the new Indigenous Languages Act accomplish anything?

Paula Simons did something that makes a lot of journalists cringe. She went into politics. The former Edmonton Journal columnist is now an independent senator. She speaks about crossing over, using social media to pull back the curtain on Canadian politics... and about the Senate's secret snack machine.

What's with our ongoing fascination with serial killers? What do we lose when Bruce McArthur pleads guilty to his charges? What does all this say about Canadian society? Plus, Jesse reveals the details of a top-secret media bailout meeting.

What do warnings of globalism, support for pipelines and calls to execute Trudeau have in common? They're all part of the rhetoric of Yellow Vests Canada. CANADALAND producer David Crosbie investigates how a French working class protest against a fuel tax has inspired a right wing, populist movement holding rallies across Canada.

Canada's in a bad way with China. Has the media prepared us to deal with the growing superpower?

With tensions rising, it may be more important than ever for Canadians to understand China. The Star Vancouver's deputy bureau chief Joanna Chiu takes us through various forces standing in the way -- a lack of understanding of Chinese media among English Canada, the misogynistic culture of the foreign press in Asia, and government control over Chinese social media, even in Canada.

Plus, she talks about her team's recent scoop that Karen Wang, the Liberal candidate for the Burnaby South byelection, attacked Jagmeet Singh for being of "Indian descent" on WeChat. Wang resigned after that story.

As the Trudeau government trumpets its track record on supporting women's rights abroad, newborn children continue to be separated from their parents right here in Canada. And how did Jagmeet Singh's most recent round of media appearances go?

Something like the half of all activity on the internet is fake. Yes, there are bots. But there are also fake websites that cater to bots. And then there are the ways real people adjust their behaviour to try to game the bots. Where does this leave the idyllic internet we were promised?

Is reconciliation still a possibility when the Canadian government marches armed police onto Indigenous land? It's time for Canada to grow up. And Canada's first female PM seems to have the best Twitter game of them all.

A bunch of new partisan political websites are fighting to shape the narrative in the run-up to the federal election. Reporter Graeme Gordon is here to tell you which organizations to look out for on your Facebook and Twitter feeds, what their political objectives are, and who's paying for them.

Two big Toronto papers got some things horribly wrong. The Sun has been censured by the National NewsMedia Council for its fictitious goat-slaughtering story, and The Sun and Star both recklessly outed a sex worker for no justifiable purpose.

One of our era's most urgent, high-stakes stories is also the hardest one to get right.

The Discourse's environment reporter Lauren Kaljur takes Jesse on a tour of the biggest misses and tropes of Canadian media's climate change coverage in 2018. Kaljur explains how reporters can go beyond stale narratives and crisis reporting, and argues that a solutions-based approach to telling these stories could make them easier to engage with.

Did Canada make the right call by arresting Huawei’s CFO Meng Wanzhou? Or was it the perfect time for a little “creative incompetence.” And new details about Ontario Proud’s "grassroots," people-powered funding reveal the people are mostly corporations.

What does the heavily redacted – er, revised – federal report on Trudeau’s trip to India tell us about the internal machinations of the government? And what does a Supreme Court ruling about journalists’ sources mean for the profession?

After 25 years at the CBC, tech columnist Jesse Hirsh decided to risk it all. During an interview about Facebook, he turned the tables, asking why CBC continues to promote Facebook as we've seen what that company has done to undermine democracy.

CBC refused to post the segment online, saying it violated their journalistic standards and practices. Hirsh's future with the CBC is unclear, but the incident raised a lot of questions about what you can and cannot say on our public broadcaster.

Despite bringing the horrifying events at a private school in Toronto to the attention of police, the media have been getting some backlash from parents. A CBC columnist dared to call out the CBC on its Facebook practices, and Jesse makes some connections on the CANADALAND conspiracy cork board.

When the CBC tweeted out a series of news alerts following Brazil’s election of a far-right presidential candidate... people had a lot to say. The tweets flagged, “fresh opportunities for Canadian companies looking to invest in the resource-rich country” and noted President-elect Jair Bolsonaro’s free market and pro-business stance — but neglected to initially mention his sexism, homophobia, and open declaration of being in favor of a dictatorship.

The tweets went viral, with readers and journalists alike expressing outrage with the CBC’s framing, but some were surprised by the attention it drew, saying that analysis focused on investment opportunity was common and could be found in any mainstream business publication.

So, was this a misunderstanding of the role and audience of business news, or an example of irresponsible journalism?

Guest host Karen K. Ho explores how these ethical concerns are becoming a core component of many big stories, and what some reporters are doing to expand business journalism's audience and sources. Bloomberg’s Jordyn Holman who covers gender, race and class, and Bill Grueskin, former managing editor of the Wall Street Journal and professor at Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism, join Karen.

For a long time, CANADALAND was (proudly) the number one podcast in the country — but that's no longer true.

Australian-born Kristi Lee works in marketing by day... but late at night, you can find her sitting in her closet, recording meticulously-researched scripts about the country's most horrific crimes.

Her Canadian True Crime podcast boasts an impressive listenership, and it's not alone. Lee's is among a burgeoning group of popular indie true crime podcasts made across Canada. But with such a following, why do we rarely hear about these shows?

Kristi joins Jesse to discuss the economics, entertainment, and ethics of true crime podcasting in Canada.

The Pittsburgh synagogue shooting was the deadliest instance of anti-Semitic violence in American history. Is the kind of rhetoric that motivated the shooter here in Canada? And what's with the CBC giving investment advice for the decimation of the Amazon rainforest?

Google's sister company, Sidewalk Labs, has partnered with every level of government to build the first-ever 'smart city' in Toronto — but with several high-profile resignations and mounting privacy concerns, will this project ever break ground?

Reporter Amanda Roth (The Logic) has spent the last eight months investigating Sidewalk Labs and Waterfront Toronto's 'smart city' plan, and has broken story after story on the tech giant's project.

David Skok is the editor-in-chief of The Logic, a new media start-up reporting on the innovation economy. He speaks with Amanda about the timeline of her reporting, how to responsibly cover big tech, and why people should be concerned by more than just potential privacy issues when it comes to this partnership.

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This episode is brought to you by Second City, Audible, and FreshBooks.

Despite mounting human rights violations and the seemingly state-sanctioned murder of a journalist, Canada continues to sell arms to Saudi Arabia. Plus, how are municipal elections in Canada supposed to compete with period pieces?

Episode 2 is online now, subscribe on Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts.

Thunder Bay. The highest homicide and hate crime rates in the country. A mayor charged with extortion. A police chief who went to trial for obstruction of justice. Nine tragic deaths of Indigenous teenagers.

Next week, recreational weed will become legal across Canada. In anticipation, mainstream media has begun taking cannabis coverage seriously. Overnight, nearly every major outlet across the country has hired full-time reporters to cover it — but before we celebrate industry growth, how sustainable is this beat?

Guest host Manisha Krishnan is joined by Financial Post's cannabis reporter, Vanmala Subramaniam and Grasslands founder Ricardo Baca — America's first weed editor, who co-led the now-defunct The Cannabist (The Denver Post's weed journalism vertical) — to discuss why journalists should cover weed like every other industry, their strangest reporting experiences, and their criticisms of cannabis coverage so far.

Guest Host Sheila Heti(Motherhood, How Should a Person Be?) speaks with fellow "autofiction" author Rachel Cusk(A Life's Work, Aftermath, et al). The Giller-nominated writers discuss receiving harsh criticism, why memoir is a dead end, and how Cusk is reimagining the novel, and making art and meaning out of mid-life crisis and divorce with her critically-acclaimed trilogy (dubbed a "literary experiment").

This past fall, as the Toronto Star's work and wealth reporter, Mojtehedzadeh went undercover for a month at Fiera Foods—a factory in Toronto where a temp agency worker was recently killed.

Her month-long stint led to Undercover in Temp Nation, an explosive year-long investigation into the company. Her and Brendan Kennedy's reporting is exemplary, but its kind is nearly extinct. In a time when robust coverage of unions and 'workplace issues' is scarce, and sporadic-at-best labour stories are relegated to the business section, investigations like Mojtehedzadeh's are rare.

Guest Host Elamin Abdelmahmoud speaks with Mojtehedzadeh and the Globe and Mail's (Vancouver) longtime former labour reporter Rod Mickleburgh about how the labour beat has changed over the years, and what less coverage means for working Canadians in a time when precarious employment rules and the gig (economy) is definitely not up.

A series of essays by men accused of sexual misconduct, in which they attempt to defend themselves, have appeared in the press lately. Jesse and co-host Anne Kingston tackle that essay in the New York Review of Books, as well as the publisher of Harper's performance on the CBC.

Guest Host Chip Zdarsky(Spectacular Spiderman, Sex Criminals) is joined by Toronto Comic Arts Festival (TCAF) co-founder and longtime friend, Chris Butcher. They discuss the state of the Canadian comic book industry, what it's like to work for Marvel, TCAF's far-reaching influence, The Beguiling, and the void that Koyama Press' departure will create in Canadian publishing.

Confusion over "off the record" played a pivotal role in global affairs this past week. So — how does this oft-misunderstood agreement actually work, and why do so many powerful people continue to misuse it?

Jesse speaks with Toronto Star's Daniel Dale about his scoop on Trump's off the record comments about Canada amid NAFTA talks, and to Buzzfeed News' editor-in-chief Ben Smith about an "off the record" email Elon Musk sent to one of his reporters.

Paul Tadich joins Jesse in the studio to talk about what it was like producing multiple cities worth of news from a windowless green-screen room in Don Mills, Toronto. He compares his time working at Global TV to a "news sweatshop".

Maxime Bernier fights diversity, then fights journalism. Justin Trudeau yells at a racist. Andrew Scheer wants you to know some people sometimes say something... or something. And a dumb debate ensues after a protestor assaults a Sun photographer.

Saudi Arabia leads the charge in exposing the human rights violations of Jordan Peterson, Alex Jones becomes the latest casualty in the Info Wars, and a review of Doug Ford's foray into the news business.

We are releasing a new podcast this week called Taste Buds. Food writer and former critic Corey Mintz sits down for a meal with chefs, cooks and restaurant owners for real talk about food. These are the conversations insiders have at the table when the customers have gone home.

The newspaper business is in rapid decline. La Presse, Québec’s largest news-site, announced its plan to become a non-profit.

Jesse joins Pierre-Elliot Levasseur, the President of La Presse in Montréal and speaks to him about their new non-profit structure. We learn about La Presse’s move to digital and how they’re holding out hope for a government news bailout.

Is this the future for news media in Canada? Or is it simply a neat exit strategy for Power Corporation, the Desmarais owned holding-company that severed ties with the newspaper business?

What's Wrong With White People Pretending To Be Musical Black Slaves? Answer: Everything. And the 18 year old story of the then goateed dude-bro, now prime minister, copping a feel at a west-coast beer fest that we don't to talk about. Ever. again.

The book world has been thrown into turmoil by sexual assault allegations, inter-generational fighting and questions over Indigenous ancestry. Is this inside baseball for a tiny industry, a microcosm of the culture wars or a battle over who gets to tell Canada's story?

Almost every news story about cannabis is accompanied by a stereotypical stoner pic. The same few photos are used again and again. Why? Who took these pics? Who are the smokers in them? And what's the deal with the most overused stoner pic of all, the pic known as "Weed Toque Girl"? WHO IS SHE?

Why is no one in Canada reporting on that Justin Trudeau groping allegation? How does The Globe & Mail go from publishing one of the most important pieces of journalism about sexual assault in recent years to publishing an alleged sexual assailant's version of events? And what can we learn from the New York Magazine profile of everyone's favourite hipster Ponzi scheme, VICE?

We have reached peak batshit in the Ontario election. Ford suing Ford, octogenarians in "physical altercations" with seventh-graders while illegally campaigning at schools, loopy NDP candidates – and that's just this week.

And no one, NO ONE, can believe that Trump is following through on his campaign promise to dissolve NAFTA.

Never mind a Tesla in every Mars driveway, Elon Musk is going to save journalism, one truth at a time. The Toronto Sun has found Hitler's body – or his ghost, anyway. The NDP have it. And a far-right group muscled its way into VICE's Montréal office.

CBC has a reputation in Canadian media for reporting on other people's scoops without giving credit. Reporters at other outlets have often grumbled about it. When Graeme Gordon, a frequent CANADALAND contributor, set out to look for more stories about this happening, the floodgates opened.

While journalists worry about Facebook algorithms and digital advertising, every other industry gets to be excited about technology. So today, we try our hardest to find the positive tech stories for the news industry.

Joshua Benton is the director of the Nieman Journalism Lab at Harvard. He joins Jesse to discuss new technological frontiers in journalism, from Apple News, to blockchain-based journalism, to the surprising ways artificial intelligence can benefit news coverage.

Whistleblowers from within the federal government revealed to National Observer reporter Mike De Souza how the Trudeau government effort pretended to ask First Nations and other stakeholders permission for the Kinder Morgan pipeline. In fact, no outcome other than an approval was ever possible.

The Canadian version of the White House Correspondents Dinner will never offend you (because you've never heard of it), new developments in the Steven Paikin allegations, and CBC’s exclusive investigation into a year-old VICE investigation.

How did an online subculture of lonely men inspire the murders of 10 people in Toronto?

After 10 people were killed in the Toronto van attack, a Facebook post surfaced from accused killer Alek Minassian, citing the "Incel Rebellion." Incels, or "involuntary celibates," are just one of a group of anti-feminist online subcultures that make up the "manosphere."

Xtra reporter Arshy Mann began immersing himself in the online manosphere years ago. He says we need to understand these groups and take them seriously.

Why were some people so determined to label the Toronto van attack as Islamist? How is it that U.S. media are capable of breaking key points of developing Canadian stories before their domestic counterparts? And how do you sift through online signal noise to report accurately in the midst of a high-profile event?

More than a year after their expansion into Canada, the New York Times is prospering here. And they're doing it with only three reporters. But what exactly is their goal here? And what does it mean for Canadian news and news consumers?

A look at the media diet of Alexandre Bissonnette, charged with the January, 2017 terror attack at a Quebec City mosque that killed six and wounded nineteen, plus Facebook continues its Canadian outreach program.

We talk to two Canadian journalists who are facing legal consequences --including jail time-- for doing their jobs. VICE reporter Ben Makuch is heading to the Supreme Court to try to stop the RCMP from getting access to communications he had with alleged ISIS recruit Farah Shirdon in 2014. APTN's Justin Brake, formerly of The Independent, is facing criminal charges for disobeying a court injunction while following Indigenous land protectors onto the site of the Muskrat Falls hydroelectric project in 2016.

The outcomes of these cases could set precedents for how the press is allowed to operate.

Hot takes! If the CBC runs a picture of you without your consent, do they owe you a column? And why was one Canadian taxpayer-subsidized show available on Netflix everywhere around the world — except in Canada?

Is all of your Facebook data up for sale? What do the Cambridge Analytica revelations mean for Canada? When does journalism cross the line into criminal harassment? And if there hasn't been any major violence in 20 years, why are we all of a sudden freaking out about Khalistan so much?

In an age of sensationalized true crime podcasts and Netflix docudramas—and with no end in sight—can longform crime reporting reach beyond morbid fascination?

For those journalists who cover crime, what are their responsibilities as reporters interviewing the accused? How do they know if they’re being used by calculated manipulators, and if they are, should they still report it?

Another populist businessman turned politician defeats a more-qualified female candidate. Will the Competition Bureau actually do anything other than raid some offices? And does the CBC hate Sikhs? Kieran Delamont co-hosts.

Patrick Brown announced last month that he would be suing CTV, after they published a report of his alleged sexual misconduct — but whether or not Brown actually goes through with the lawsuit is yet to be seen.

Being threatened with a defamation lawsuit is arguably a rite of passage for journalists. The fear of libel hangs over every newsroom, so this is a risky business — but maybe it's not as risky as we like to act like it is.

Media litigation lawyers Justin Safayeni and Adam Wygodny speak with Jesse about how often people sue for libel, the precedence of the 2009 Grant vs. Torstar ruling, and how 'anti-SLAPP' laws in Ontario are helping to protect journalists.

After two years of reports and stuffy consultations, the slow-moving train-wreck that's been the "news bailout" has made its way into the proposed 2018-19 federal budget.

The budget dedicates $50 million dollars over five years to "supporting local journalism," but who's eligible for funding? Though crucial details are pending, PostMedia Network's CEO Paul Godfrey and former Globe and Mail EIC Ed Greenspon are not happy—so maybe this isn't such a bad thing after all!

Jesse speaks with entrepreneurs running innovative, independent digital media startups across the country to gauge their reactions, and to see if any of them will be vying for a piece of the government-made pie.

After years of dodging emails about the internal politics of the country's largest subreddit, r/Canada, Jesse finally jumps down the weirdo-message-board rabbit hole.

Nearly 340k people are subscribed to r/Canada, with many using it as a primary source of national news. This past week, private messages were leaked between two of the subreddit's moderators, in which one moderator named u/Perma wrote that they were "slowly becoming" a white nationalist.

Jesse also speaks to the person responsible for leaking the conversation, "Neil" AKA u/UsedToDonateBlood, the founding moderator of r/OnGuardForThee — the breakout subreddit pushing back against the "censorious," and increasingly "alt-right" editorial slant of r/Canada.

An earlier version of this episode made reference to a Justin Trudeau AMA on r/CanadaPolitics. This was in fact an April Fool's hoax.

In the wake of the verdict, Jesse revisits a conversation he had in Saskatoon with Betty Ann Adam (Saskatoon StarPhoenix), Rob Innes (Assistant Professor, University of Saskatchewan), and Mylan Tootoosis (PhD candidate, University of Saskatchewan).

This show was recorded live at Winterruption in Cosmo Seniors Centre on January 20th, 2017. The original airing of this episode was produced by Katie Jensen.

After ending the campaigns of several Tory candidates with his muckraking during the 2015 federal election, Macleans dubbed Robert Jago, "the most dangerous blogger in Canada".

The next year, Jago broke the Joseph Boyden scandal, and this past January he exposed Senator Lynn Beyak for publishing racist letters on her website, which resulted in her being ousted from the conservative caucus.

Jago has quickly risen as an incisive, evocative voice in Canadian media. He's now a regular contributor to The Walrus and CANADALAND — but he says he doesn't plan on giving up his day job anytime soon.